A liaison in the Great Greenwood

Chapter 56

Thranduil rolled his eyes. "We are alone. My guards know I wish to be alone these days."

"Hiding from something are we?" She teased him further. "Or someone?"

"What has brought you here Celebrian?" He asked instead, his piercing eyes narrowing onto her.

"Motherly concerns." Celebrian answered without any hint of fear or hesitation. She was not the one who tried to hide things after all. "Of course we got the news about the attack in the forest, where my daughter supposedly disappeared; and then my husband sent his message about her presence in the war camp." It was her turn to narrow her eyes onto the Elvenking. "When I allowed her to move in with the love of her life, I would have never thought that you, Thranduil Oropherion, would let her endure such dangers."

"What had happened to her was not my will." He began to explain. "After Legolas had left for the battle, which was his own free will, she started to defy my rules ignorantly. I had tried to bring her back to her senses but she is just as stubborn as her mother."

Celebrian scoffed. "Strong will does not mean stubbornness." She replied calmly.

"Unless it concerns your daughter." He replied with just as much calm.

She narrowed her eyes at him once again. Then, she smiled brightly, her eyes pinned behind Thranduil. "Thank you!" She called merrily.

Thranduil turned to see his servant carrying a glass flask filled with dark liquid and a simple cup, matching the one in his hands.

"Your wine, my lady." The servant bowed his head and placed the cup on the nearby table. Before he put the flask on the same place he poured some wine into the cup.

"That will be all." Thranduil dismissed the servant calmly.

"Hir vuin, hiril vuin..." The young ellon bowed his head in respect and left the garden.

Celebrian took a strong gulp of her wine which raised the Elvenking's eyebrows.

"Getting drunk already?" He asked her the same question she greeted him with only moments ago.

"Why?" She pinned her gaze at him, slightly amused. "Will I need to?"

"Depends on how much you are willing to accept that your youngest daughter is not as innocent as she seems."

"I am aware that she has had carnal relations with your son. Does that too not make him the same as she?"

"I had not been referring to that...She is spoiled." He hid the real truth behind his words.

Celebrian's gaze searched him suspiciously then, her eyes soon becoming serious as she placed her cup upon the carved table between them. "Spoiled? Hardly, yet she is a lady of high renown. Do you expect her to be treated as a pauper?" Celebrian sighed then, "She is scared Thranduil."

"Scared?"

Celebrian sighed once more, knowing that the wool had been covering his eyes. "Of course you are unaware."

"Unaware of what?"

"I had a glimpse of her visions. I cannot be sure, but I know there is something going on, something between the two of you."

Thranduil froze and his gaze became austere. "Can you be more specific?"

"Unfortunately I cannot. I was hoping that you could tell me."

"The only vision I am aware of is the one concerning me and my injuries. Yet as far as I know, her vision was uncertain, she only saw a pale-haired warrior."